Symbiotic
by WeLoveWeLive
Summary: Symbiosis is the process of close and long-term interaction between two or more different species. Fury finds that this is the best description of what happened with the team called the Avengers and their friends.
1. Not What Fury Expected

**Disclaimer: Not Joss Whedon, not Stan Lee, not Marvel, don't own The Avengers or anyone from the MCU.**

* * *

When Nick Fury first thought of the Avengers Initiative he had assumed that the team would be only for special response. They would come together when needed and then go their separate ways. He did not count on all of them moving into Stark Tower (which had at some point been renamed Avengers Tower), bringing their friends along (some of which managed to worm their way onto the Avengers…), and or that when you put them together they became this force of utter insanity. Banner was right, they were a time bomb: a time bomb that thrived off of insanity and emotional instability. Oh there was some semblance of logic in that tower, but that side was easily offset by the thought of "but that would be COOL".

It started out as expected. Loki attacked, led the Chitauri to Earth, the Avengers assembled for the first time, saved the world and went their separate ways. Then Stark went and injected himself with the Extremis virus and it proved difficult for him to control. Potts and Rhodes eventually called Banner, Rogers, Romanoff and Barton in to help them out. When Fury found out about this (they'd been off the grid for hours by the time anyone noticed) he had been a little shocked. He knew they could work together without falling into a battle of the egos, but he didn't think they would run to Stark's side like they did.

When he was finally able to get information out of them, he learned that Stark's confidence issues had shown up again after New York. He had felt inadequate and that he was only a hero when he had the suit on. So he got the Extremis procedure. The virus had given him a mental link with not only his suit but any form of technology. Once he had gained full control over it, it turned out to be quite useful (although S.H.I.E.L.D could've done without the headaches Stark enjoyed causing with it…). Fury thought that with Extremis under control things would go back to how they were. He was wrong. Rogers, Romanoff and Barton had returned to their S.H.I.E.L.D issued apartments but were making constant trips to Stark's New York residence and Banner seemed to have taken up permanent residence there.

However, Fury hadn't realized what they were planning until after Thor returned. When they finally finished debriefing the Asgardian on what exactly _had_ happened to him and Jane Foster, Thor said that he had to go meet with Stark to discuss plans for his section of the tower. An hour later Stark, Banner, Rogers, Romanoff and Barton were sitting in his office with the plans for the tower in front of them. In hindsight, he probably should've put a stop to it then, but they somehow convinced him it was a good idea. So he let them go through with it. Only once they had left did he notice that the plans included space for Potts, Rhodes, Foster, her assistant Darcy Lewis, and Thor's friends Sif and the Warriors Three (when did the rest of the team meet them…). That should've been his first indication that this was becoming a lot bigger than he had intended.

Then the Winter Soldier happened and it became clear what the Chitauri invasion really had started. At first the team had seen the Soldier as the man who had trained Romanoff in the Red Room; a deadly Russian assassin sent to kill them. However, it soon came to light that before that he had been James "Bucky" Barnes, Rogers' best friend and right-hand man from WWII. Suddenly the Winter Soldier was tracking the Avengers down to kill them and the Avengers were tracking the Winter Soldier down to bring Barnes back. The World Security Council just about had an aneurysm at that. The only reason S.H.I.E.L.D didn't was because Fury got promises from every member of the Avengers who weren't Rogers that if it became clear that the Soldier's conditioning couldn't be broken they would take him out. The team made it clear that that was the final option though so Fury hadn't been surprised when Barton called in saying that Winter Soldier was down and Barnes had broken his way back into his own mind.

When they got Barnes back to S.H.I.E.L.D HQ it was round-the-clock surveillance, deconditioning, and Stark using every tactic he had to analyze that cybernetic arm of his (and blanching at the technology because while it had been updated as much as possible it was still at least 50 years out of date and something a year out of date gives a Stark palpitations) because they had to be sure the conditioning was broken. Once Barnes was cleared for contact with people other than psychologists Rogers became a permanent resident at his bedside. Soon all of them had been in there at least once. Fury knew then that it was only a matter of time before Barnes was added into those plans for that tower that somehow still wasn't finished (it had been almost a year since the Loki incident and while most of New York was back to normal the tower was still completely empty). He found that he couldn't bring himself to care anymore since if he tried to stop them he's probably have a mutiny on his hands from a group of people who could, if they had the mind to, take over the world.

When the psychologists gave Barnes the OK to search for a place to live outside of HQ, Barnes looked at Rogers who looked at Fury who sighed.

"You lot would simply kidnap him if I didn't allow it so go right ahead."

The Tower was finished within the next month and while no one lived there full time, it seemed like they did. Stark built Barnes a new cybernetic arm. Fury wondered if he should invest in a still of alcohol to be placed in his office since he foresaw a lot of headaches in his future.

* * *

**Authors' Note: So this is my first Avengers story. I know the concept isn't the most original but what I wanted to do was write a story like this with more than just the six characters from The Avengers since I also love the supporting characters from their individual movies and they all become this big ol' megalomaniac ass-kicking unit. Review (also if anyone has any more information on Extremis to help me out I would greatly appreciate it).**


	2. The Official Avengers' Babysitter

**I went and did a fix-it...hehehe and just so you know my characterizations are based off of what I got from the movies, research, other fanfic and meta tags on Tumblr. Review, favourite, follow! **

* * *

S.H.I.E.L.D is a big organization. There are some agents who have never met the Avengers, just seen the footage. So it's actually a bit plausible that some agents, including the Avengers, would not learn that Agent Phil Coulson survived the attack on the helicarrier for over a year. Just a bit though, there are still agents waiting to hear word that Black Widow has killed Nick Fury in his sleep.

The way in which the Avengers found out about this little piece of information and then proceeded to spread it throughout the organization starts like this: James Rhodes had been in a meeting with Fury about relations between S.H.I.E.L.D and the military when Agent Coulson walked in.

"Sir, I understand keeping me out of the field after the accident. I also understand not mentioning it to everybody because of the circumstances, but I was cleared for field work 3 weeks ago. I've read the files and by the looks of it the Avengers have gone and built themselves a clubhouse and unless you get somebody in there to handle them, it will be burned to the ground within a month. I've handled Barton and Romanoff for years, I can handle the rest."

"Phil…" Fury started.

Coulson turned around and saw Rhodey staring at him like he'd seen a ghost.

"No offence man but Tony told me you were dead."

Two hours later Phil Coulson was sitting in the main common area of the Tower while Tony Stark, Steve Rogers, Natasha Romanoff and Clint Barton ripped Fury in every language they knew while Fury was attempting to explain the situation and how he hadn't wanted to get their hopes up. Thor was on Asgard with Sif and the Warriors Three so he didn't know and Bruce had made his way to a junkyard where Coulson assumed the Hulk was smashing everything in sight. Everyone else had retreated to other floors.

Eventually Tony, Steve, Natasha and Clint stopped yelling and stalked out of the room, leaving Fury and Coulson alone.

"Well that went better than I expected." Coulson said.

Fury just looked at him.

"Look sir I understand why you told them I was dead on the helicarrier. They needed the push but was it really necessary to keep this from them for over a year? Especially after I was put into recuperation? They were going to furious anyway, why make it worse?" Coulson asked.

"Would you believe me if I said that with everything that happened it slipped my mind?" Fury said, actually looking shameful for once in his life.

Coulson had to admit it was the most plausible explanation. He had read the files on almost everything that had happened to the Avengers in the past year (he wasn't finished yet; he'd made his way to Fury's office the moment he read the words "Avengers' Tower"). Although that still didn't make it OK, Coulson was sure he was the only agent who could be the handler (read: babysitter) for the Avengers and not kill them and everyone connected with them. They had already been able to begin plans for this Tower and keep them from Fury for almost two months. Who knows what else they could be doing at this very moment?

"Well if you can get them to trust you again, you are officially their handler," Fury said.

Coulson snorted, "I think you'll have the bigger trusts issues with them sir"

"I don't think any of them have ever really trusted me," Fury said as he walked out.

Coulson sighed. This was going to be the difficult part.

He found Tony first who he assumed would be in one of the personal R&D labs which were the closest to the common floor. He would then make his way down to the gyms where he assumed he could find Natasha and Steve. Clint would probably be somewhere in the air vents (Coulson didn't want to think about the possibility of him running off...) and he'd deal with Bruce whenever the man made his way back.

He was right about Tony. He was in the lab that held all of the Iron Man technology, making what was probably the 1000th update to it. Hell Coulson thought, it was only a matter of time before he started making Pepper a suit just because he got tired of tinkering with his and Rhodey's. He probably spent a lot of time updating everyone else's tech and weaponry when he thought about it.

"I didn't think you cared that much," Coulson said, attempting to break the ice.

"Yeah that's me. Don't care about anything but myself." Tony said, still looking at his screen.

"You know when I first met I probably would've agreed with that statement, but by the looks of things you've turned this tower into an Island of Misfit Toys since then so now I'm not so sure."

Tony couldn't help but smirk at that.

"I didn't know what was happening. I was in recovery for 9 months and then put on medical leave for the next 5. I only got back 3 weeks ago and if I had known that you guys all thought I was dead I would've made them let me come over." Coulson said.

Tony was silent for a few moments. "You know this whole thing really messed Clint up right?" Tony said, finally looking at him. "The guy still has nightmares about being the helicarrier and Loki. Natasha's the only one who can get through to him about them."

Coulson nodded his head at that. "I know."

"He's the one who who's gonna have the most trouble with this."

"I know."

"In fact he may have already done a runner."

"I know."

Tony was silent for a few more moments. "Are you waiting for me to let my guard down so you can tase me?"

"Not today Stark."

Tony continued to eye him as he moved over to another desk. "OK. You talk to the others yet?"

"No. You were the first one I found."

"Well go on then, find them. Just remember my World War II relics don't like to be poked and prodded."

"Stark, I don't have any plans on taking Captain Rogers things which are not yours. Don't blow up the lab."

"Yeah yeah don't scare the relics."

"I don't know where you got this idea that I'm some sort of Captain America fanboy."

"Steve told me about when he first met you. Natasha and Clint told me about everything before and Fury showed me your trading cards."

Coulson wondered when Fury had gotten his hands on the trading cards…which had yet to be returned to him…"Goodbye Stark." Coulson walked out, hearing Tony laugh as he went.

As Coulson made his way towards the elevator Bruce stepped off of it.

"Look uh…sorry about running off. I couldn't risk the Other Guy deciding to smash Fury." Bruce said.

Coulson shrugged "Natasha is likely to kill him later tonight. I think some people would prefer being smashed by the Hulk to that."

Bruce laughed at that and Coulson noted that he seemed to be a lot more comfortable than he had been the last time he saw him "For the record I am glad you're alive, it's just going to take a while before I trust Fury again."

"He doesn't think any of you ever really trusted him," Coulson said.

Bruce gave a little grin at that "Well…bye." He walked off in the direction of Stark's lab. Probably to tell him about some crazy idea he's thought up, I should research what this tower can withstand, Coulson thought.

Surprisingly he found Natasha and Steve at the same time, sparring in the gym located in the Tower's basement. He guessed that they wanted to take out their frustrations on a live target and each were the other's best option. He waited until the two of them took a break until he spoke.

"This was all Fury's idea. I didn't think of any of it. I didn't even know." Since Natasha was there he figured it was best to come right out and say it.

Natasha didn't reply, Coulson hadn't expected her too. She chose the people she trusted very carefully and if you broke that trust it was near impossible to get it back. Steve did respond though.

"Is this something I should get use too?"

"What Fury lying? I'd assumed you'd realized that after you found the Phase 2 weapons."

"Oh I did. What I meant was people that I thought were dead suddenly showing up again."

There was something in Steve's tone that caught Coulson's attention but before he could ask what he meant two phones went off. Natasha and Steve both grabbed one (and really the image of Captain America using a cell phone was something Coulson never imagined he'd see) and whatever was in the message made Steve roll his eyes and Natasha smirk. Steve put the phone away and turned back to Coulson.

"Well it's good to have you back and I'm sorry about your cards. It actually would've been kind of cool to sign them."

"Why? What happened to my cards?"

"They…they were in your pocket when Loki stabbed you. They were ruined, covered in your blood. Fury showed them to me and Tony." Steve looked really confused at Coulson's words.

If looks could kill and Nick Fury had been standing right there, he would be dead. Coulson turned around.

"OK. I'm going to find Clint and then I am to going to have a talk with Director Fury. I will speak to you both later."

"Goodbye," Steve said and Natasha nodded. Coulson took that as a good sign. It meant she would eventually talk to him again. As he left he didn't notice the two of them grab their phones and begin to text someone back.

Coulson knew that Clint would be difficult to find. He didn't have the air ventilation system memorized or any knowledge of Clint's Avengers' Tower air vent habits. Plus it was still a possibility that he had run off. So it was a stroke of luck that Clint hopped down from an air vent on the street-level floor of the Tower. When he noticed Coulson though he almost looked like he wanted to run away but Coulson spoke before he had the chance.

"Nothing I say is going to change the fact that Fury told you I was dead. I understand that. Natasha is going to kill him, I'm going to kill him, and you're probably going to kill him. I get it."

Clint remained silent.

"I know you could very well never trust or speak to me or Fury again and I understand but I just wanted you to know I had no idea what Fury had done."

Clint looked down at the ground. "Everyone leaves after a while."

Coulson understood this. Clint had a history of abandonment. "Natasha hasn't, unless the files I've read lied, this team you've built won't and I don't plan on fake-dying again."

Clint looked at him.

"Fury can be a bastard at times (well most of the time Coulson thought). I know that, you know that, everyone in this tower knows that. I understand that you feel betrayed but I just wanted you to know I had nothing to do with this." Coulson turned and started to walk away. Clint called out to him.

"So are you our official handler now or something?"

Coulson turned around. "That's what Fury wants me to be."

Clint nodded. "Better you than anyone else I'd say. I think the rest of S.H.I.E.L.D is scared of us."

"Doesn't surprise me. Apparently insanity's contagious."

Clint shrugged. "Pepper and Rhodey have known Tony since before Afghanistan. They're only as sane as you can be after dealing with that since, you know, they stuck around. Sif, Fandral, Volstagg and Hogun are from another realm so they automatically appear crazy down here. Jane's a scientist and I have yet to meet a sane one. Darcy just seems to be a special case." Clint hesitated for a bit after that. "And I guess the six of us don't really need any explanation. Steve's probably the closest to salvageable you've got and that possibility shrinks every day."

Coulson smirked at that. "Am I going to have to create a naughty step?"

"There aren't any stairs here Coulson!"

Coulson rolled his eyes. "I have to go meet Director Fury. Turns out he owes me a complete set of vintage Captain America trading cards."

Clint's eyes widened. "I'm guessing he doesn't get any advanced warning?"

"Nope."

Really the only agents who thought that Natasha would kill Fury in his sleep were the ones who didn't know the Avengers and Coulson personally. Those who did knew that Nick Fury had more to fear from an angry Phil Coulson due to trading card vandalism than he did from the Black Widow.


	3. Tricks on Coulson

**Hey! Hope you all had a good Christmas or whatever you celebrate! I attempted to put this chapter up before the holidays but that clearly didn't work out...I may still do a NYE related chapter though. This chapter is a sort of sequel to the last one so I hope you like it! Review, favourite, follow and I don't own anything!**

* * *

When all things were considered the Avengers and their friends had reacted rather well to Coulson's apparent resurrection once they got over the shock. For starters Fury was still alive (and currently spending all his free time scourging EBay for a complete set of vintage Captain America trading cards to replace the ones he had DIPPED IN HIS BLOOD), and Natasha was starting to speak to him again (albeit only in short sentences). Oh there had been tears, (more) yelling and New York was hit by a freak lightning storm when Thor returned from Asgard, but now it seemed like everyone had accepted Coulson's return and things were returning to their warped version of normal.

Except for the part where Tony had decided that Coulson was not a mere Captain America fan, but a Captain America stalker. Which Tony had decided required random blasts of songs that he felt best described Coulson and Captain America whenever the two came in contact (the man was obviously having JARVIS observe all of Coulson's actions). "Every Breath You Take", "Paparazzi", "Call Me Maybe", if it could be construed as being about some form of stalking Tony had arranged it to blare throughout wherever Coulson and Steve were at that given moment.

To say it was annoying would be an understatement.

Oh there was another thing…Coulson was pretty sure they were hiding something from him. Tony's crack about "not poking his World War II relics" seemed to be repeated often and usually got either a laugh, smirk or eye roll from any other inhabitants of the Tower. Sometimes Coulson would approach a room and hear some sort of scuffle inside. Once he got in the room, everyone in there either left or seemed like they wanted him out of there as fast as possible. Coulson was reaching his limits.

Things finally came to a head the week before Christmas. Coulson was in S.H.I.E.L.D HQ and walked into a lab where Tony, Bruce, Steve and Clint were.

"I'm your biggest fan, I'll follow you until you love me, papa…paparazzi"

The reactions were as expected: Clint laughed, Bruce smirked, Steve got a look on his face that indicated he really didn't know how to react and Tony got a manic grin on his face. There was also another laugh from inside a cupboard.

"What was that?" Coulson asked.

A few moments passed in which the four men seemed to be scrambling for words.

"Uh…HQ been infested with rats. We're trying to get rid of them but we keep missing a few." Clint said.

"What is this? The Nutcracker? That was a human laugh. There was someone in here who went and hid in that closet." Coulson replied.

"Oh, I saw that the other night!" Steve said.

"Yeah. It was originally going to be a double date for me, Pepper, Thor and Jane but then the girls decided that we should introduce all the people who are not from this realm slash era to our Christmas traditions so we had to include Steve, Sif, Fandral, Volstagg, Hogun and then it all just snowballed until everyone ended up going." Tony added.

Clint and Bruce nodded in agreement.

"The Nutcracker existed 70 years ago Tony but yeah. New York is absolutely beautiful this time of year. They took me to Christmas tree at Rockefeller Square and we went skating and they showed me all the Christmas windows on Fifth Avenue. It's been great." Steve continued.

"We decorated the Tower last night. Me and Rhodey suited up and hung lights around the outside and then Clint tried to put the star on top of the tree with his arrows." Tony started.

"But then Tasha snatched it out of my hands." Clint finished.

"Enough. I see Fury was right when he said they were corrupting you every day Rogers." Coulson started.

"Oooh. He called you Rogers Steve." Clint teased.

"BARTON!" Coulson yelled "You lot are hiding something. Now tell me who is in that closet?"

More silence. And then…"This is all your fault," Steve said to Tony.

"Do not start with that Steve," Tony replied.

"You've gone along with everything we've done!" Clint said.

"There are cameras in every room so we have video footage of all the times you've gone along with it." Bruce added.

Steve just glared at them.

Coulson realized at this point that he was not getting any answers out of them so he walked over to the closet and opened.

Coulson wasn't so sure what he expected to find in the closet but some man who looked exactly like Steve's best friend from the 40s (what? Images of the Howling Commandoes were commonplace in pieces on Captain America) only with a robotic arm was not it. Coulson turned around to look at the other four.

"Conference room. All five of you. Now."

After about an hour of the five men talking over each other and Fury yelling back at them, Coulson eventually got the whole story out. Bucky had survived the fall from the train, was brainwashed into being a master assassin for Russia (there was some sort of connection to Natasha there as well…), sent to take out the Avengers, the brainwashing was broken etc. etc. When Tony realized that Coulson hadn't read that file he somehow managed to convince almost everyone to see how long they could keep him in the dark. Those who didn't agree apparently had just decided to stay out of it which really wasn't any better (had Pepper just given UP on controlling Tony…).

Eventually the five of them stopped trying to explain everything and apologized. Coulson figured it was probably best to just let it drop after that (you know he had never really wanted children but it seemed that the universe had different plans). He walked over to Bucky.

"Agent Phil Coulson. It's…really great to meet you and…just I'm glad these guys brought you back."

Coulson was aware that this had to be a sore spot for them all but he meant it. He knew all about the friendship between Steve and Bucky and it really showed how close that team had become that they were willing to go after a completely brainwashed assassin on a potentially impossible mission just to give Steve his best friend back and, in doing so, give Bucky his life back.

"Thanks." Bucky said after a few moments.

"Hey I just met you! And this is crazy! But here's my number! So call me maybe!"

"TONY!"

Tony fled from the room with Steve and Bucky chasing him while Clint and Bruce killed themselves laughing.

Coulson rubbed his forehead and seriously reconsidered that naughty corner in Stark Tower.


End file.
